Elephants (Loxodonta africana) significantly alter ecosystem structure and composition through browsing (e.g. pollarding, debarking and toppling). Such browsing is predicted to intensify during severe drought which may become more common with climate change. Here, we make use of an elephant impact survey from 2012 to 2015 and during the El Nino drought of 2015–2016 at Pongola Game Reserve (107 km²), KwaZulu‐Natal, to investigate how severe drought influenced damage severity of different tree heights and species by elephants in this small reserve. Contrary to expectations, damage to common species did not change with severe drought. Crown damage had the highest predicted probability across heights (29%–90%) and species (46%–75%) regardless of drought. However, we found severe drought increased the predicted probabilities of crown damage to smaller trees <4 m, mortality >6 m and severe damage at 4–6 m. Consequently, elephant damage during severe drought may alter vegetation structure by severely damaging or killing large trees (>4 m) and extensively damaging the crowns of trees <4 m. Long‐term monitoring of elephant effects on woody vegetation is essential to enable science‐based management in response to future drought and elephant damage (e.g. range expansion, beehive deterrents) to protect elephants and conserve woody vegetation.

中文翻译：

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非洲大象在南非Pongola Game Reserve遭受严重干旱期间对木质植被的破坏

大象（非洲象）通过浏览（例如，去皮，剥皮和倒塌）极大地改变了生态系统的结构和组成。预计在严重干旱期间这种浏览会加剧，而干旱可能随着气候变化而变得更加普遍。在这里，我们利用了2012年至2015年以及2015-2016年厄尔尼诺干旱期间在Pongola Game Reserve（107 km ²），夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省（KwaZulu-Natal），调查在这个小保护区内，严重干旱如何影响大象对不同树高和树种的破坏严重性。与预期相反，严重干旱并未改变对常见物种的损害。无论干旱如何，树冠破坏在高度（29％–90％）和物种（46％–75％）上的预测概率最高。但是，我们发现严重的干旱增加了<4 m的较小树木，> 6 m的死亡率和4–6 m的严重破坏的树冠受损的预测概率。因此，大象在严重干旱期间的破坏可能会通过严重损坏或杀死大型树木（> 4 m）并严重损坏<4 m的树冠而改变植被结构。